February 27, 2010

Is this really my first post of the year? In that case, let me bring you up to date. We’ve spent the early part of 2010 trying to see how many people we can get on stage with us to perform songs by the Clean. It’s going pretty well. Times New Viking helped us out with “Oddity” in Lawrence, Kansas in January, and card-carrying Clean member, RobertScott, sang “Secret Place” and “I Wait Around” with us on consecutive nights in Auckland and Wellington earlier this month. Saw This Is It en route to New Zealand and My One and Only on the way home – guess which flight didn’t have on-demand movies.

Now that we’re caught up, it’s nearly March, which means it’s time for the WFMU Marathon. For the 15th year in a row, we will take to the airwaves and, with your help and generosity, humiliate ourselves so that this great station can continue the doing of their thing. In case you’re new to this catastrophe, if you pledge $100 to WFMU between 8 and 11 pm on Friday, March 5, during Pseu Braun’s Thing with a Hook program, you can make a song request. And we will try to play it. How is this possible, you ask. The answer is simple: It’s not possible. Can’t be done. But there’s countless ways to get it wrong, and we’ll attempt as many as we can within the constraints of a three-hour show. As ever, we will accompanied by Mr. Bruce Bennett on chord-missing and word-forgetting. Air personality Gaylord Fields will be co-hosting.

If you don’t want to wait for Friday, you can donate to WFMU right now and email your request to Gaylord, who will keep it in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s doorstep until March 5 at eight o’clock. Caution: If you’re the person who thinks that Oscar® winners get advance word or the NBA draft lottery is rigged, wait for Friday to make your request.